Editing History of Morocco (section)

==Prehistoric Morocco==
{{See also|List of prehistoric sites in Morocco}}
Archaeological excavations have demonstrated the presence of people in Morocco that were ancestral to ''[[Homo sapiens]]'', as well as the presence of early human species. The fossilized bones of a 400,000-year-old early human ancestor were discovered in [[Salé]] in 1971.<ref name="Hublin">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Hublin|first=Jean Jacques|editor1-first=Lawrence|editor2-first=Kate|editor1-last=Barham |editor2-last=Robson-Brown|editor2-link=Kate Robson Brown|encyclopedia=Human Roots: Africa and Asia in the middle Pleistocene|title=Northwestern African middle Pleistocene hominids and their bearing on the emergence of Homo Sapiens|url=http://www.eva.mpg.de/evolution/staff/hublin/pdf/human_roots.pdf|access-date=14 January 2014|year=2010|publisher=Western Academic and Specialist Press|location=Bristol, England|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924004207/http://www.eva.mpg.de/evolution/staff/hublin/pdf/human_roots.pdf|archive-date=24 September 2015}}</ref> The bones of several very early ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' were excavated at [[Jebel Irhoud]] in 1991, these were dated using modern techniques in 2017 and found to be at least 300,000 years old, making them the oldest examples of ''Homo sapiens'' discovered anywhere in the world.<ref name=":7">{{Cite news | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-40194150 | title='First of our kind' found in Morocco| work=BBC News| date=7 June 2017| last1=Ghosh| first1=Pallab}}</ref> In 2007, small perforated seashell beads were discovered in Taforalt that are 82,000 years old, making them the earliest known evidence of personal adornment found anywhere in the world.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090505163021.htm |title=World's Oldest Manufactured Beads Are Older Than Previously Thought |publisher=Sciencedaily.com |date=7 May 2009 |access-date=22 November 2013}}</ref>

In [[Mesolithic]] times, between 20,000 and 5000 years ago, the geography of Morocco resembled a [[savanna]] more than the present arid landscape.<ref name="Lubell 1984">1984 D. Lubell. [http://watarts.uwaterloo.ca/~dlubell/Lubell_1984.pdf Paleoenvironments and Epi Paleolithic economies in the Maghreb (ca. 20,000 to 5000 B.P.)].  In, J.D. Clark & S.A. Brandt (eds.), ''From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa''.  Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 41–56.</ref> While little is known of settlements in Morocco during that period,{{update inline|date=March 2023}} excavations elsewhere in the [[Maghreb]] region have suggested an abundance of game and forests that would have been hospitable to Mesolithic hunters and gatherers, such as those of the [[Capsian culture]].<ref name=":8">D. Rubella, ''Environmentalism and Pi Paleolithic economies in the Maghreb (c. 20,000 to 5000 B.P.)'', in, J.D. Clark & S.A. Brandt (eds.), ''From Hunters to Farmers: Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa'', Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 41–56</ref>

During the [[Neolithic]] period, which followed the Mesolithic, the savanna was occupied by hunters and herders. The culture of these Neolithic hunters and herders flourished until the region began to desiccate after 5000 BCE as a result of climatic changes. The coastal regions of present-day Morocco in the early Neolithic shared in the [[Cardium pottery]] culture that was common to the entire [[Mediterranean]] region. Archaeological excavations have suggested that the [[domestication]] of cattle and the cultivation of crops both occurred in the region during that period.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nelson |first=Harold D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pqxf5uJMBvkC&dq=morocco+Neolithic+domestication+of+cattle+and+the+cultivation+of+crops&pg=PA4 |title=Morocco, a Country Study |date=1985 |publisher=Headquarters, Department of the Army |language=en}}</ref> In the [[Chalcolithic]] period, or the copper age, the [[Beaker culture]] reached the north coast of Morocco.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Davies |first=O. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sh0hBQAAQBAJ&dq=morocco+copper+age%2C+the+Beaker+culture&pg=PA174 |title=West Africa Before the Europeans: Archaeology & Prehistory |date=2014-10-30 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-60532-4 |language=en}}</ref><ref>https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-025-09621-z  Cemeteries, Rock Art and Other Ritual Monuments of the Tangier Peninsula, Northwestern Africa, in Wider Trans-Regional Perspective (c. 3000–500 BC)</ref>